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All posts for the month February, 2017

Miscellaneous Meanderings on the signs of the times (Vol. 8, No. 85)
Dr. Mark S. Latkovic
February 1, 2017

~When I read stories about a Christian losing his or her faith (see this one: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-evangelical-scion-who-stopped-believing/ar-BBxJWVX), I often wonder (especially if they’re an Evangelical) whether they had sound philosophical formation.They may know the Bible, but they usually do not have a solid foundation in the philosophical proofs for God’s existence and other matters related to showing the inherent reasonableness of the faith.

~Speaking of losing the (Catholic) faith…The Japanese Catholic Shūsaku Endō’s (1923—1996) novel, Silence (published in 1966) and Martin Scorcese’s film adaption of it, have ignited or should we say reignited controversy (e.g., see among the many articles and reviews this one: https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2016/12/the-troubling-legacy-of-shsaku-ends-silence; although Monica Migliorino Miller’s review is much more penetrating; see http://www.crisismagazine.com/2017/silence-many-martyrs-little-redemption).Like all things today, everything is in flux for the post-modernists – even the notions of martyrdom and moral absolutes.“Don’t you fundamentalist Catholics realize that Jesus would want you to deny him out of love for others?,” the post-modernists question.Ah, yes, “love.”It takes away all sins; sadly, so do many Christians.

~It’s usually a sound approach not to provoke people unnecessarily.One of the arguments for not speaking of Islam when in fact one is speaking of Islamic terrorism is we don’t want to further incite the radicals and offend the moderates, whose help from the latter we need.One flaw in this argument is that radical Islam has already declared war on us.They see themselves in a war against the “infidel” – whether we understand that to be the case or not.Given that reality, our reticence to use the word “Islam” is viewed by our enemies not as a sign of respect, but as sign of weakness on our part.

~When you stop and think about it, as I did recently, the fact that President Obama received an overwhelmingly large percentage of the minority vote – especially among blacks – is quite shocking no matter how you look at it: In 2008, “minorities went heavily into the Obama camp. Blacks, 96 percent Obama to 3 percent McCain; Latinos, 67 percent Obama to 30 percent McCain; and Asians, 63 percent Obama to 34 percent McCain.” (See http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/04/exit.polls/). In 2012, Obama “won 93 percent of African-Americans, 71 percent of Hispanics, and 73 percent of Asians.” (See http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/Decoder/2012/1107/Election-results-2012-Who-won-it-for-Obama-video).96% and 93%: those numbers are staggering and shouldn’t be anywhere near that level of support even for a minority candidate such as Obama was.It borders on the 99% of the “vote” that tin-pot dictators receive from their “voters.”

~Political scientist Michael Barone says that Americans aren’t as mobile as we used to be (see http://m.townhall.com/columnists/michaelbarone/2016/12/30/americans-are-no-longer-on-the-move-n2264638).Barone doesn’t make this argument, but in addition to the economic arguments that he does make, some of this lack of mobility might have to do with the fact that technology has shrunk our world and country.One simply doesn’t always have to physically go to another place to, in some sense, be or even work in that place.

~NBA basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar argues that “‘The Bachelor’ Is Killing Romance in America” (see http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/amp/news/kareem-abdul-jabbar-bachelor-is-killing-romance-america-guest-column-960200).Here’s one of the paragraphs that caught my eye: “So, what’s so wrong with a little harmless entertainment of watching people scramble for ‘love’ like ravenous crabs on a washed up seal corpse? In the short term, nothing. Just good, clean fun. But the long-term effects of their choices – from the types of people selected to be on the show to the promotion of a subversive, childish concept of love – is like smoking or listening to Kenny G: it can have serious consequences.”I’m sorry, Kareem, but “good, clean fun” it ain’t – not even in the “short term.”

~Progress – and here I’m thinking primarily of moral and social progress – is often the story of “two steps forward and one step backwards.”We make progress on the racial front, for example, only to regress on the intact-family front.

~Ellen DeGeneres uninvited on her TV show gospel singer (and pastor) Kim Burrell after a video surfaced of her preaching a sermon that included her speaking of a “perverted homosexual spirit, and the spirit of delusion and confusion, it has deceived many men and women.” (See http://deadline.com/2017/01/kim-burrell-ellen-show-canceled-following-burrell-anti-gay-sermon-1201878011/). What many were condemning as “hate speech,” however, is simply basic Christian teaching.For example, in St. Pauls’ Epistle to the Romans 1:26-27, we read: “Therefore, God handed them over to degrading passions. Their females exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the males likewise gave up natural relations with females and burned with lust for one another. Males did shameful things with males and thus received in their own persons the due penalty for their perversity.”Here the Apostle Paul preaches good, old natural law and biblical revelation.The fact that Burrell is both black and a woman weren’t enough to rank her above the LGBTQ agenda.

~Pope Francis’ close advisor, Fr. Antonio Spadaro, S.J., caused a stir with the following tweet:Theology is not #Mathematics. 2 + 2 in #Theology can make 5. Because it has to do with #God and real #life of #people…

~Occasionally, I wonder what my life would have been like with a nickname.

~Sometimes a (sudden) pain in one part of your body can make you forget that you have a (chronic) pain in another part of your body.

~I’m starting to grow weary of the otherwise good (pastoral) term “accompaniment.”

~Georgia Democrat Congressman, John Lewis, said that president-elect Trump is not a “legitimate president” (see http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/john-lewis-trump-won-t-be-legitimate-president-n706676; of course, Trump punched back on Twitter:http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/14/politics/john-lewis-donald-trump/).But Lewis was largely shielded from criticism in the media because of his status as a “civil rights icon.”Does that mean then that no criticism of Lewis is allowed?The courage of Lewis (and others who marched with him) surely has won him a well-deserved level of moral authority on issues of race.But what he did 50 years ago, however good and noble, shouldn’t immunize him from legitimate criticism (when called for) today.On many issues, Lewis has forfeited that high moral ground over the last several decades – not only on the issue of abortion, but even on the issues of race and civil rights themselves.His political positions on those matters, I would argue, are far from the views of his friend Martin Luther King, Jr. and other early civil rights pioneers.

~One often hears that someone is “empowered” by such and such an act or word or cause or whatever – e.g., a woman walking around half naked.It’s become the word that stops all arguments.“Well,” you say, “doesn’t a woman exploit herself by wearing clothes that reveal too much?”No, no, no!You can’t say that!She’s empowered by it! Oh, okay, end of argument; case closed!You win, I lose!

~With respect to Trump’s Executive Order suspending refugees for 4 months – it also does other things, among them, bans “nationals of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for at least the next 90 days…” (For full text of the EO, see http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/28/politics/text-of-trump-executive-order-nation-ban-refugees/index.html) – we also have to talk more about why we have such a refugee problem around the globe to begin with.It’s as if the causes don’t exist, only the problem.

~Because secularists assume that their atheism and/or secularism always will be a fact of life for them – and because they do not fundamentally understand religion, e.g., having already privatized it – they simply are not equipped to grasp the threat posed by Islam – specifically, what Andrew C. McCarthy calls “sharia-supremacist” Muslims.In fact, they’re clueless.

~President Trump has nominated federal judge Neil Gorsuch for a seat on the Supreme Court (see https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/31/us/politics/supreme-court-nominee-trump.html).This is a brilliant pick of a brilliant judge.Got to give Trump credit for honoring his promise to nominate a judge who takes seriously his role to judge and not legislate from the bench.This is a good way to start February, the last full month of winter.